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The unusual weather of 2012 has drastically lowered the supply of hay
in Michigan. For the past nineteen years that I have coordinated the Michigan Hay Sellers List, this is the
lowest supply of hay for sale on the list in memory.

Michigan’s Lower Peninsula started out the year with alfalfa breaking
dormancy earlier than normal with warm weather in March, followed by repeated frost
events in April. This was followed by dry weather in May that grew into hot,
droughty conditions in June and July. The Upper Peninsula started the spring
dry following a dry summer
in 2011 where hay inventories had already been reduced.

First cutting hay yields were 20 – 45 percent lower than normal over
much of Michigan and second cuttings have been 50 – 80 percent below normal. Many
livestock and dairy farms in the southern Lower Peninsula have gone into
survival mode scrambling for any forage they can find. This will be a tough
year for herds caught short of feed because few feed alternatives are cheap and
most other states in the region are at least as dry as Michigan.

Some areas of Michigan have been fortunate to have rain and others are
irrigating so some hay is still available. Anyone with extra hay, or with the
potential to make hay more hay is encouraged to list it for sale on the Hay
Sellers List once they have it baled. Even if hay has been stored for a few
years it can be fed and will still have nutritional value. Aged hay, as long as
it is kept dry, does not lose significant nutritional value, except for a few
vitamins that can be easily supplemented.

The Michigan
Hay Sellers List is an on-line listing of farms with hay for sale. The
listing is free and is kept current by deleting all listings that are over four
months old. Anyone wishing to list hay for sale or wanting to locate hay to buy
can visit the Michigan Hay Sellers List
website. Just follow the directions and go to the “help” icon at the top of
the entry page if more clarification is needed.

February 21, 2017 | Katherine Lee | Michigan State University (MSU) will host its second annual Agriculture Innovation Day: Focus on Forages and the Future on Aug. 24 at the Lake City Research Center located at 5401 W. Jennings Road, Lake City, MI, 49651.